Panel examines gun lobby’s resistance

A Meet the Press roundtable discusses the proposed gun control reform laws and the NRA’s stance on universal background checks.

Meet the Press

This content comes from Closed Captioning that was broadcast along with this program.

>>spine on the gun issue,
e.j. dionne
. this is coming to a head. reaction to -- well, you heard from
mayor bloomberg
and from
wayne lapierre
who sounded this morning like there's a little bit of wiggle room on
background checks
, perhaps not what bloomberg and others like, but there might be a
background check
stel.

>>i always thought it was easy to criticize the extreme end of the
gun law
before extremism. i didn't think i would for inconnisten si. these guns laws infringe on the first amendment but we are not enforcing
gun laws
, laws to restrict violence strongly enough. i think that's very peculiar. i think the momentum is still with the advocates of saner
gun laws
. i think that the
assault weapons ban
is still hard to pass, which i think is very unfortunate but it's nonetheless true. there is strong support for
background checks
and the issue there, i don't think -- we're going to get a bill on universal
background checks
. the real issue, will it be compromised so much that too much will be given away be a i think there's a good chance of getting off banning the big magazines and if you have that plus a law against gun trafficking, this would be a very significant victory for people who have been trying to get saner
gun laws
for a very long time.

>>let me untangle the
lapierre
contradiction. i think he's right on one of the issues. over the last 20 years
gun laws
have become looser. over the last 20 years
gun violence
has dropped by 50%. tens of thousands of people are alive today because of better policing. better policing, incarceration, some of the other things have huge effects on
public safety
. the
gun laws
historically, the
brady bill
very small effects. i support them. i think they would be moderately positive. the
background checks
would be moderately positive. there is no
historical record
these rules will have a huge effect on
public safety
. there is a
historical record
the stuff
lapierre
is talking about is the one area i agree with him on, the policing, that has an effect. why are we talking about these
background checks
and the magazines and the
assault weapons
bans which may have a small effect but the stuff that has a big effect?
lapierre
to his credit is talking about that stuff.

>>meaning what? in terms of policing or school safety?

>>no, not putting guns in schools. what's led to a huge drop is because policing has changed. parole policies has changed. incarceration has changed.

>>how ironic that the very same people pushing against
gun laws
and reasonable
background checks
are also the same people who have insisted on billions of dollars of cuts in government spending on the very same safety workers and police and firemen and the like who have an impact on society. i don't think they can have it both ways. this is going to come down to, you know, probably the six democratic senators who are up for re-election in
2014
. and i think what we're going to see is what
mayor bloomberg
said which is that
background checks
and the points that e.j. made are going to seem very reasonable and modest. you know, one of the things about the focus on the
assault weapons ban
in my view, you're
reaching for the stars
. if you
reach for the stars
of the
assault weapons ban
, you might just get the moon in the
background check
.

>>a quick response.

>>our organization doesn't work on this issue so i'm speaking only for myself. i think the devil will be in the details. look, this bill already exempts family transfers. so newtown doesn't even get prevented by this. the mother could go out and buy an
assault weapon
ban -- an
assault weapon
, because
harry reid
has already said that is not going to pass in the senate, and she can give it to her son. that's what happened in newtown. it happens under --